Follow @ChildDefender

The Huffington Post

September 16, 2013

A new study suggests that middle and high school students are eating more fruits and vegetables, exercising more, skipping breakfast less often and eating fewer sweets. At the same time, childhood obesity rates appear to have leveled off for the first time in years. "It was a bit of a surprise," said study coauthor Ronald Iannotti, a professor of exercise and health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a researcher with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "Over the last few decades -- the last five, really -- obesity has increased in U.S. adolescents and become a real epidemic." But the new findings, which were published online in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, suggest that between 2001 and 2009 there was a "cresting," he said.Click here to view full article.